How to find a room in Groningen

How to find a room in Groningen

Unfortunately, there is a serious housing shortage in the city of Groningen and it is very difficult to find a room. In this article we give you some tips to improve your search. You will also find an overview of the housing organisations and intermediary agencies of Groningen.

# 1 Via via

The best way to find a room is through your own network. Make a post on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, ask your classmates if they know any Dutch person, call that crush you met during your holidays and send a message to your Dutch friends. Who knows, maybe this eventually helps, just give it a shot.

# 2 Facebook groups

If it is not possible to get a room through friends and acquaintances, scan through Facebook groups which now are full of rental housing ads. Here are some Facebook groups you might wanna check:

# 3 Hang up a note ‘the old way’

You do not expect it, but hanging up notes in the library, at your student association, in the harmony complex and in the supermarket you might also just get you a room.

“The best way to find a room is through your own network.”

# 4 Housing network and housing corporations

The best way to find a room through a rental organization is to register with a housing corporation. Housing corporations have a wide range of social rental housing and rooms. These corporations comply with the requirements about maximum allowable rent under the law and are generally known as good landlords.

Housing corporations work with a point system. Each month you will get a point. The more points you have, the greater chance to get a place to live. Have you just moved to Groningen? Then register as soon as possible with the Woningnet. Woningnet publishes a weekly overview of the housing offers from the best-known housing organisations. This way after a few years you can rent a beautiful home in the center of Groningen:

# 5 Anti-squatting

Anti-squatting is the rental of premises that will either be sold to another party, be torn down or buildings that are waiting to be renovated. By allowing people to temporarily live in their premises, owners protect empty buildings from (illegal) squatting and vandalism. You can register for free on the CareX website. CareX charges a one-time fee of 100 euros per person. Also via Villex or Ad Hoc it is possible to obtain an anti-squatting property.

# 6 The world wide web

There are various collection websites for landlords and students who are looking for (co-) tenants. The best known websites are below. Do not forget to look at Marktplaats every day. On this website rooms are regularly presented by private landlords.

# 7 Agencies

If the tips above did not help, here are the questions: are you in a hurry and money is not a problem? Then look for a residential real estate agent (verhuurmakelaar) who can help you finding a place. We strongly disapprove agencies, because, unfortunately, it’s very difficult to find in Groningen a decent agent who complies with the maximum allowable rents (if you know a good agent, please let us know!). Our experience shows in Groningen tenants have been charged unjust agency fees when they rented a room or an apartment. Always check the rental price and service costs if you do decide to hire an agency to provide you with a room.